2012: The Year of Opportunity

The economic recovery has brought new opportunities in real estate investment, and hotel acquisitions seem especially well positioned to benefit from rising asset values and the recovering capital markets. The U.S. hotel industry closed 2011 with increases in occupancy, ADR and RevPAR. While the industry is not back to 2007 and 2008 levels, 2012 shows signs of continuing this upward trend and opening a new window of opportunity.

Join the Hotel Investor’s Marketplace Webcast as our panel of industry professionals discusses 2012: The Year of Opportunity.

Join us on 29th July for a webinar looking at how to make the most of your entry into the Masters of Marketing. Covering the entry process, what to include, some ideas to help capture the judges attention, as well as some hints and tips to help you showcase your work in the best possible light.

Whether you are a B2B organisation looking to capture attention at an industry event or a consumer brand sweeping into a trending conversation - there is real value to be gained from engaging in real- time or "owning your moment" in social media.

With the right approach, you can ride the wave of social conversation to increase awareness, engage a highly targeted audience, drive interest and ultimately sales!

Learn from our own experience riding the wave at #SMWF, as well as case studies from our work with Interflora, Thomson Reuters and Southbank Centre as we explore how to:

-Effectively plan to own your moment using social insight
-Resource your teams to react in real-time and approve content fast
-Leverage paid social to ride that wave
-Equip yourself with the right tools (free, not just paid!) to maximise the opportunity
-Measure the effectiveness of your activity and prove ROI

In recent years, B2B marketers have been confronted with a barrage of new technologies and systems aimed at making them more productive, efficient and successful. But which technology investments are worth making and what do you need to know before adding new systems to your technology stack?

Show Me Your Stack (#MKTGstack) is an ongoing webinar series featuring a roster of forward-thinking B2B marketers that provides a glimpse into the marketing infrastructure that powers their demand gen engines and serves as the critical backbone to their business.

Everything from CRM and marketing automation to content management, business intelligence and analytics systems will be covered – basically, anything in the stack!

Each episode features a different marketer who will walk you through their marketing tech stack, share their goals and explain how their teams are structured. Don’t miss this rare chance to see how the best in the business invest in and use marketing technology.

About Acquia:
Acquia is the digital experience company. Intuit, Warner Music Group and Stanford University are among the more than 4,000 organizations that are transforming their digital businesses with Acquia’s open cloud platform. Global 2000 enterprises, government agencies and NGOs rely on Acquia to create new revenue streams, lower costs, and engage audiences more deeply through content, community, commerce and context.

How do you deliver great digital experiences in today's mobile-first, multi-touchpoint, omnichannel world? The answer is to map customers' journeys against your mobile and web touchpoints, then harness context - full knowledge of a customer's history, preferences, behaviors, and location - to tailor the experience.

Increasingly, organizations are looking at Web Content Management (WCM) solutions in the cloud. Why? Because in the cloud, you can rapidly deploy sites, reach mobile devices, secure against attacks, and scale to meet demand.

In this session you will:

* See the data highlighting major trends driving interest in "WCM in the Cloud"

* Understand the pros and cons of moving your WCM to the Cloud

* Master the role of the cloud in delivering great digital experiences.

* Build support and a roadmap to use the cloud in your digital experience delivery strategy.

Join Silverpop Marketing Expert Ellen Valentine, as she reviews customer journey planning techniques and how to use the output from this strategic work to improve your digital marketing efforts.
Learn how to:
•Determine the key stages in the customer journey
•Map out the buyer’s thoughts and needs at each stage
•Identify areas you can improve to enhance the customer experience
•Use a multichannel approach to connect more effectively with contacts
•Expedite prospects’ and customers’ movement along the customer journey

It's often said that retaining customers is a lot easier and cheaper than finding new ones. But how do you put this into practice and use data to your advantage?

In this webinar, DueDil analyst Andrew Warren-Payne will discuss why B2B customer marketing is so important and how you can put a plan into place. He will cover:
-) Setting goals and objectives for B2B customer marketing
-) How to map your customer lifetime journey and plan your communications accordingly
-) How to prioritise your existing customers using first party and third party data for retention and upselling activity
-) How to work together with sales and account managers for maximum effect

Get lots of clever tips and techniques to create more effective landing pages immediately.

This fast-paced, practical webinar includes more than 40 examples, good and bad and is led by popular content trainer and Sticky Content founder, Catherine Toole.

In just 45 minutes you’ll have learned how to:

rock a title – even on a small screen
catch attention from the get-go using bold openers and frontloading
organise information for optimal effect
get original approaches signed off and through compliance
optimise pages for conversion
delight customers and prospects by satisfying needs and goals
nudge users down specific paths
Get better at landing pages in under an hour – sign up for our webinar now.

Recent studies show people want to develop more meaningful relationships with brands. The rewards for brands who truly collaborate with their customers and involve them at the heart of their marketing are great, with genuine advocacy leading to more sales, increased brand awareness, meaningful customer insights, user generated content and more.

This webinar will share how, by putting your customers centre stage, you can develop the meaningful relationships they seek and work with them to thrive in this brave new era of marketing.

Personalization is critical to the success of your business model. Many of the most innovative and beloved companies in recent history -- think Facebook, Amazon, Google, Netflix, Pandora, Spotify and Hulu, just to name a few -- have transformed customer expectations and disrupted their individual industries. Now customers expect it. It increases clicks, open rates and conversions -- usually by pretty substantial margins. But -- how do you DO it?

The process is different at every step of the customer journey and there's a lot that goes into personalization. What's more, there's a lot more ways to reach your customers than ever. Personalizing display ads is very different from personalizing emails or a mobile app experience. The data, content, and delivery mechanisms necessary to personalize those messages changes -- and so should your strategy.

We're taking a holistic look at the art of personalization -- from customer expectations to ROI. We'll show you a new way of looking at identity -- from both the customer's behavior to predicting their behaviors.

In this webinar, you'll:

* Learn how to collect data that helps visualize the customer's journey
* Get tips on one of the biggest challenges to increasing the ROI of marketing automation
* Access the theory of identity enrichment
* Gain insight into best practices for personalization in different channels

Register for this webinar today and get started doing personalization right!

Personalization is critical to the success of your business model. Many of the most innovative and beloved companies in recent history -- think Facebook, Amazon, Google, Netflix, Pandora, Spotify and Hulu, just to name a few -- have transformed customer expectations and disrupted their individual industries. Now customers expect it. It increases clicks, open rates and conversions -- usually by pretty substantial margins. But -- how do you DO it?

The process is different at every step of the customer journey and there's a lot that goes into personalization. What's more, there's a lot more ways to reach your customers than ever. Personalizing display ads is very different from personalizing emails or a mobile app experience. The data, content, and delivery mechanisms necessary to personalize those messages changes -- and so should your strategy.

We're taking a holistic look at the art of personalization -- from customer expectations to ROI. We'll show you a new way of looking at identity -- from both the customer's behavior to predicting their behaviors.

In this webinar, you'll:

* Learn how to collect data that helps visualize the customer's journey
* Get tips on one of the biggest challenges to increasing the ROI of marketing automation
* Access the theory of identity enrichment
* Gain insight into best practices for personalization in different channels

Register for this webinar today and get started doing personalization right!

Data breaches strike all industries, but for the hospitality industry the stakes are extremely high, and the financial impact to a company can be significant. As an owner, controller or CFO, your responsibility now includes the safety of corporate data. We will explore how you can effectively work with IT to develop a risk management profile that protects your data and maintains your financial success.

Meet the Panel: H. Brandt Niehaus, CHB, President of Hotel Brokers International and President of Huff, Niehaus & Associates, Inc., a full-service hotel investment advisory firm. Julie Eisenhauer, CPA is a shareholder at Clark Nuber, a CPA and consulting firm in Bellevue, Washington, where she provides audit, assurance and consulting services to privately owned companies. Peter Henley, CPA, CITP, serves as Clark Nuber’s Senior Director of IT, and is responsible for aligning IT with the firm’s strategic business plan and making Clark Nuber the most technologically advanced accounting firm in the Northwest.

The June 24th Hotel Investor’s Marketplace webcast will focus on Hospitality Lending. HBI President Brandt Niehaus will be joined by Dennis Nessler, Editor at Large of Hotel Business to discuss the magazine’s recently completed survey of hospitality industry lenders and examine the types of loan products available in the market, requirements for generating hospitality loans and opinion on the status of the lending industry this past year and through 2015.

The April 30th Hotel Investor’s Marketplace webcast panel will talk about The U.S. Economy and its impact on the Lodging Business. The lessons learned from past economic cycles, where we are in this cycle, and how it is different than previous cycles. They will discuss the economic barometers and what their indications mean for the hotel industry. April 30th viewers will have opportunity to ask questions of the panel and benefit from their combined 90+ years of industry experience.

Meet the Panel:
H. Brandt Niehaus is President of Hotel Brokers International and President of Huff, Niehaus & Associates, Inc., a full-service hotel investment advisory firm. Mr. Niehaus has over 30 years of experience in hospitality real estate sales and consulting. He has successfully transacted the sales of hundreds of hotel properties from limited-service independents through full-service luxury hotels representing sellers in conventional sales as well as lender-owned transactions for banks and institutions.

Mark Woodworth is President of PKF Hospitality Research, (PDF-HR), a CBRE company. Mr. Woodworth has over 30 years of hospitality industry experience in both a consulting and hands-on operational capacity. Mr. Woodworth has managed and conducted consulting assignments, involving both the public and private sectors, throughout the U.S. He has worked for the industry’s leading lenders, developers, chains and management companies and has dealt with all aspects of operations, development and financing.

Online reviews and social media are a blessing and a curse. On one hand, attention on social media and online can drive business. On the other hand, negative reviews can have a significant negative impact. While reviewers have a right to express their opinions without fear of litigation, reviewers may also be held accountable for spreading falsehood that damages reputation or decreases revenue. This webcast will assist the hospitality professional to respond to negative reviews. It will provide the viewer background information intended to assist hospitality professionals in (1) distinguishing between expressions of opinion (which are protected) and statements of purported fact (which are not); (2) responding informally to negative reviews; (3) determining how legal counsel can efficiently and effectively assist; and (4) avoiding potential liability under state statutes that might apply in legal actions brought to curtail speech.

The webinar will also overview principles established by very recent appellate court decisions pertaining to online reviews.

About the presenter: Clifford S. Davidson, Attorney, Sussman Shank LLP, is a commercial litigator with jury trial experience. Throughout his career, he has focused on commercial contract disputes, entertainment and intellectual property litigation, First Amendment litigation, counseling in the areas of privacy and data security, and insurance coverage.

1031 tax exchange could offer good tax benefit to hospitality asset owners seeking to improve their hotel portfolio. Named for Section 1031 of the United States Internal Revenue Code, this investment strategy is essentially a swap of one business for another, allowing an investor to change the form of their investment without cashing out or recognizing capital gain. This allows the investment to grow tax deferred – avoiding tax until an actual sale for cash.

Learn about the 1031 tax exchange process during the HBI Hotel Investor’s Marketplace Webcast scheduled for September 10 when Tony DeGeorge, President of Hotel Brokers International, will welcome guest speaker, Rochelle Stone, President and Founding Partner of Starker Services, Inc. Starker Services is the nation's oldest, largest and most experienced independent Qualified Intermediary firm, successfully completing thousands of exchanges each year. Rochelle has been active in the 1031 exchange industry for over 20 years and is a nationally recognized speaker, teaching exchanging and investing techniques to investment and professional groups.

Some of the things to be discussed during the September 10th Webcast include:
•the difference between a sale and an exchange;
•protections offered by a 1031 exchange;
•types of qualifying property;
•how a delayed exchange works;
•the timing rules;
•and, what to look for when selecting a Qualified Intermediary.

Attorneys Joseph A. Field of Field Jerger LLP and Richard M. Saltzman of Giambrone & Saltzman, LLC will join HBI President Tony DeGeorge via the organization’s webcast series - Hotel Investor's Marketplace to discuss franchise agreement negotiations, terms and conditions as well as tips on how to get ahead of the foreclosure curve and reach resolution with the bank. Register now for this complimentary webcast.

Methodology for the appraisal process may change based on the asset being valued, but the end goal is always the same – establishing monetary value. Hotel valuation, a highly specialized process, is different from valuing any other cash flowing real estate as the appraiser must give consideration to four elements: land, business, improvements, and personal property. Join the Hotel Investor’s Marketplace Webcast on March 5, when Adam Cowart, MAI, Senior Appraiser and Director of Operations for Cowart Hospitality Services and HBI President Tony DeGeorge will discuss new trends emerging in hotel valuation, how hotel lending criteria has changed in recent years, and what impact this has on the valuation process.

An improved economy brings rise in the dreaded hotel PIP. Hotel brands are requiring franchise property owners to deal with property improvement and deferred maintenance issues that were put on the back burner while the country weathered the economic downturn. The concept of reinvesting and improving your hotel to maintain and increase the asset’s value makes sense; however, with the economy showing only modest growth, hoteliers are reluctantly letting loose of the purse strings. Kevin Brickner, Vice President at Wyndham Worldwide and Daniel Couture, Sr. Director of Product Improvement at Choice Hotels International, join Charlie Fritsch, president of Hotel Brokers International to discuss the PIP process from inspection and negotiation to budgeting and execution.

This year, HOTEL BROKERS INTERNATIONAL conducted their annual HOTEL FINANCING SURVEY in partnership with HOTEL BUSINESS magazine. The survey – now in its 19th year – was distributed to nearly 200 hospitality industry lenders and examined the types of loan products available in the market, requirements for generating hospitality loans and opinion on the status of the lending industry this past year and through 2013. During this Webcast, Dennis Nessler, editor of Hotel Business, will join HBI President Charlie Fritsch to discuss the hotel financing market and share the results of this survey with the hospitality investment community.

The U.S. hotel industry reported increases in all three key performance metrics for fourth quarter 2012 in year-over-year measurements, according to the data tracked and compiled by STR and STR Analytics. On March 13, Stephen Hennis, Director of STR Analytics, will join the HBI Hotel Investor’s Marketplace Webcast and HBI President Charlie Fritsch to take a detailed look into the hotel performance data and review which regions, markets, and segments were the greatest contributors to the increases posted in 2012. Could the industry’s occupancy, ADR and revenue per available room continue this upward trend throughout 2013 and 2014?

About Stephen Hennis, CHA, ISHC
As Director of STR Analytics, Stephen Hennis oversees specialized consulting projects and the development of new STR products and services. Mr. Hennis has over 17 years of experience in the analysis of lodging investments. He has appraised and evaluated over 500 lodging facilities, and has been involved in the underwriting, negotiation and acquisition of luxury hotels and resorts.

About STR Analytics
Meeting the needs of all lodging industry participants for in-depth, comprehensive analysis of hotel industry performance data, STR Analytics provides an extensive range of services and creative applications to a variety of clients. STR Analytics offers the unique combination of experienced lodging industry experts and STR’s unparalleled international hotel database. STR Analytics is based in Boulder, Colorado. STR is the recognized leader in providing accurate, actionable information and analysis to the lodging industry. Since 1985, the company has served the industry operating on the key principles of integrity, confidentiality and customer service.

As the year winds down, we look toward 2013. How will the hospitality real estate and finance markets differ from 2012? What new opportunities will the New Year bring? What, if any, impact will the United States Presidential Election have on the hospitality industry? Be a part of the conversation as our panel of hospitality industry professionals - Charlie Fritsch, Hotel Brokers International; Laurie Ivy, PMC Commercial Trust; and Joe McCann, Optimum Hotel Brokerage – look toward 2013 and discuss the issues most important to hotel real estate investment, financing and operation.

Webcast will feature the most recent hotel performance trends data as tracked by Smith Travel Research. Join Charlie Fritsch, president of Hotel Brokers International, and Jeff Higley, vice president of digital media & communications for STR/STR Global/HotelNewsNow.com, as they discuss the hospitality real estate industry market and opportunities for investment.

The 18th ANNUAL HOTEL FINANCING SURVEY sponsored by HOTEL BROKERS INTERNATIONAL and LODGING HOSPITALITY, distributed to nearly 200 industry lenders, surveyed the types of hotel lending available in the market, requirements for generating hospitality loans and opinion on the status of the lending industry this past year and for 2012. During this webcast, Ed Watkins, editor of Lodging Hospitality will join HBI President Charlie Fritsch to discuss the hotel financing market and share the results of this survey with the hospitality investment community.

The economic recovery has brought new opportunities in real estate investment, and hotel acquisitions seem especially well positioned to benefit from rising asset values and the recovering capital markets. The U.S. hotel industry closed 2011 with increases in occupancy, ADR and RevPAR. While the industry is not back to 2007 and 2008 levels, 2012 shows signs of continuing this upward trend and opening a new window of opportunity.

Join the Hotel Investor’s Marketplace Webcast as our panel of industry professionals discusses 2012: The Year of Opportunity.

During the complimentary Hotel Investor's Marketplace Webcast scheduled for November 9, HBI president Joe McCann will be joined by lodging industry media... And, instead of posing the questions, these Editors will be answering them. Lodging industry Editors spend every day focused on the facts of the industry, participating in industry investment conferences, interviewing experts in the industry and studying industry analyses. They are familiar with all aspects of the industry. Through this Webcast industry Editors will share their perception on the State of the Lodging Industry. Webcast attendees will glean invaluable information on a variety of hospitality industry topics including: finance, hotel franchise and the overall health of the industry.

In the first six months of 2011, Occupancy, ADR and RevPAR were all on the rise in the hotel industry. According to STR data, “The U.S. hotel industry finished June with the highest revenue per available room since August 2008.” Will this steady improvement continue into the second half of the year? What are the greatest opportunities for hotel investment? Join the Hotel Investor’s Marketplace Webcast as Joe McCann, president of Hotel Brokers International, and Jeff Higley, vice president of digital media & communications for HotelNewsNow.com/STR/STR Global, sit down to discuss the outlook for the hospitality real estate industry market. Jeff will share the most recent hotel performance trends data tracked by Smith Travel Research.

About the Presenters:
Joseph R. McCann, CHB, is president of Hotel Brokers International and president of Optimum Hotel Brokerage. Joe is a thirty-year hotel industry veteran who has held senior management positions with Hilton and Marriott at their largest and most successful properties. During his hotel brokerage career, he has closed more than $500 Million in hotel asset transactions and his Philadelphia-based firm, Optimum Hotel Brokerage, is recognized as one of the leading hotel brokerage and hotel capital advisory services companies in the United States.

Jeffrey Higley is the vice president of digital media & communications for HotelNewsNow.com/STR/STR Global. Jeff, a 26-year journalism veteran, has specialized in the hotel industry for the past 14+ years. He launched HotelNewsNow.com, a division of Smith Travel Research in September 2008. Prior to joining HotelNewsNow.com and Smith Travel Research in March 2008, Higley served in various leadership positions for Questex Media Group’s Hotel Management. Higley was instrumental in the company’s launch of Hotel Design, Luxury Hotelier and The Hotel Times magazines.

Fourth quarter 2010 brought a measurable uptick in the number of distressed hotel property and note sales. More than half of all distressed asset sales in 2010 transpired in the year’s final three months. Will this upward trend continue through 2011? When will the promised flood of distress come to market? Where will this year’s greatest opportunities exist? What strategies should a would-be-purchaser employ? Learn the answers to these questions and more as Joe McCann, president of Hotel Brokers International, and Jeff Kolessar, senior vice president of development of GF Management, sit down to discuss the great overhang of distress in the hospitality real estate industry market.

Social media networking has catapulted to the #1 activity on the Web and has changed forever the way in which we interact. Approximately 75% of all adult Americans use at least one of the hundreds of established social media platforms. While it can be overwhelming, social media is an essential component to a business marketing plan. Your marketing program doesn’t have to include all social media outlets, but there is a significant importance to having some kind of presence in the online social scene.

Join the Hotel Investor’s Marketplace Webcast on March 2 as we welcome Brian Bagel, social media director for TIG Global, who will talk about the overall importance of using social media in hotel marketing and share what tactical steps hotel owners/managers can take to improve their hotel’s online marketing.

TIG Global provides hotel Internet marketing management services to more than 800 hotels, resorts, restaurants and spas - from small, independent boutique properties to large international brands, located in more than 20 different countries around the world.

Join the Hotel Investor’s Marketplace Webcast on November 17 as a panel of hospitality professionals analyze the results of the United States midterm elections and the impact they may have on the lodging industry. What ramifications, if any, will this election have on the hot button issues most important to hotel real estate investment and operation?

Gain insight into hotel real estate investment. Check the temperature of the market. Preview the most recent hotel listings and obtain information from leaders in brokerage, franchise, finance and media.